May 17, 2002

The seventh-seeded Duke Blue Devils will take on the second-seeded Syracuse Orangemen in the quarterfinals of the 2002 NCAA Men's Lacrosse Tournament on Saturday at 12 noon in Hempstead, N.Y.

Duke earned a spot in the quarterfinals with a 22-6 win over Hobart last Sunday while Syracuse received an opening round bye as one of the tournament's top four seeds. The winner of Saturday's game meets the winner of Sunday's Virginia-Cornell game in the national semifinals on Saturday, May 25 at Rutgers.

DUKE NOTES
DUKE IN THE NCAA TOURNAMENT: Duke holds an all-time record of 6-8 in NCAA Tournament play ... The Blue Devils have made previous quarterfinal appearances in 1994, 1997, 1998 and 2000 including a Final Four showing in 1997.

DUKE 22, HOBART 6: Duke used a 17-0 run to end the game en route to posting a 22-6 win over Hobart in the opening round of the NCAA Tournment last Sunday in Newark, Del. ... Freshman Matt Monfett had four goals and three assists while fellow rookie Matt Rewkowski contributed three goals and two assists in the victory.

DUKE VS. SYRACUSE: Duke and Syracuse have met five times in men's lacrosse, with the Orangemen winning four of the five meetings ... Included in the five meetings is a 12-11 Syracuse win over Duke in the 1994 NCAA Quarterfinals.

SCOUTING SYRACUSE: The Orangemen enter the postseason at 12-2 overall and earned the NCAA Tournament's number two seed ... Syracuse's losses in 2002 came to Johns Hopkins (9-8 on March 16) and Cornell (15-11 on April 9) ... Michael Powell leads the Orangemen and the country in scoring with 70 points on 36 goals and 34 assists while Josh Coffman had added 59 points on 36 goals and 23 assists ... Coffman ranks eighth nationally in scoring ... Syracuse leads the nation in scoring, averaging 14.43 goals per game ... In goal, Jay Pfeifer owns a goals against average of 9.21 and save percentage of .524.

TOUGH SCHEDULE: Eleven of Duke's 14 opponents during the regular season were ranked among the nation's top 20 teams at the time of the contest with the Blue Devils ... Duke closed the regular season with nine straight nationally ranked foes.

GRADUATION: Due to the NCAA Tournament first round game against Hobart, the Duke seniors missed the institution's graduation ceremonies on Sunday ... The group participated in a cermony on Monday morning along with the Blue Devil women's lacrosse team, which missed Sunday's festivities while playing Georgetown in an NCAA Tournament quarterfinal game.

LIESKE THREE SHY OF 100: Senior Alex Lieske stands just three career points of the 100-point barrier ... For his career, Lieske has 97 points on 42 goals and 51 assists in 47 games ... With three points, Lieske would become the 29th player in Duke lacrosse history to reach 100 career points.